Rep. Janelle Bynum joins request to Congress for formal review of EPA’s microplastics regulation
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Three congressional lawmakers led a group of 24 members of Congress today in requesting a formal review of the Environmental Protection Agency's efforts to study and regulate microplastics in drinking water and ecosystems.
Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Oregon, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois, and Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-New Jersey, sent a letter to U.S. Government Accountability Office Acting Comptroller General Orice W. Brown asking the nonpartisan agency to audit the EPA's microplastics activities.
The requested GAO review asks for a complete accounting of EPA research, monitoring capabilities, risk assessments and regulatory policies regarding micro- and nanoplastics since fiscal year 2023.
The audit request comes as the EPA's Safe and Sustainable Water Resources Strategic Research Action Plan for fiscal years 2023 through 2026 nears its conclusion.
Lawmakers stated that Congress lacks a clear assessment of what the agency has accomplished and what additional work is necessary to establish reliable monitoring and health risk evaluations.
In their joint letter to the GAO, Bynum, Krishnamoorthi, Watson Coleman and their colleagues wrote, “Even as the EPA's FY2023-FY2026 research plan approaches its conclusion, Congress lacks a clear assessment of what the EPA has accomplished in its work on microplastics and what work remains necessary to support reliable monitoring, risk assessment and potential regulatory action.”
In April 2026, the EPA published its draft Contaminant Candidate List 6, which included microplastics as a priority contaminant for research and potential regulation. However, when the EPA published its proposed Sixth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule in July 2026, the agency omitted microplastics from the list of contaminants public water systems would be required to monitor.
In December 2025, seven governors had petitioned the EPA to include microplastics in the monitoring rule. Although the agency requested method development input in February 2024, the EPA stated in its July 2026 proposal that no validated analytical method was available in time to meet statutory deadlines.
In response to the omission, congressional lawmakers have pushed for expanded oversight of microplastics across multiple federal agencies.
In July, Rep. Bynum led a bicameral letter requesting the EPA add microplastics to the drinking water monitoring rule. Bynum also introduced the Microplastics Safety Act, a bipartisan bill that would direct the Food and Drug Administration to conduct a study examining the health impacts of microplastics in food, water and consumer products.
Research on microplastics defines the particles as plastic debris ranging from five millimeters down to one nanometer in size. Testing conducted by Environment Oregon across 30 of Oregon's rivers, lakes and urban waterways detected microplastic fibers in 100% of the samples collected.
Public concern over plastic contamination has grown alongside questions regarding federal action. During a joint press conference announcing the Contaminant Candidate List, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. questioned the necessity of prolonged regulatory delay. “Why do we need to know anything more?... Shouldn't we be acting right now?” Kennedy said.
Lawmakers emphasized that an independent audit of the EPA's efforts is essential to safeguard public health and environment quality across the country.
In concluding their letter to the GAO, Bynum, Krishnamoorthi, Watson Coleman and their co-signers wrote, “Addressing microplastic pollution is critical for protecting the health of Americans and safeguarding our waterways and ecosystems. Our constituents deserve to know what microplastic exposure means for their families' health and the requested information above will be critical in informing Congress's work in tackling this challenge.”
